Clear shampoo: Beauty Spot

Do you smell your shampoo before you buy it?

Clear is a good, solid shampoo, writes Leanne Delap. Fragrance developers spent about three years working on just the right scent to convey that the product is “modern, efficacious, good for you and luxurious.”

Do you smell your shampoo before you buy it? Turns out the beauty megaconglomerates, the Unilevers and P&Gs and L’Oreals of our world, study every weensy step of consumer behaviour: what we buy, how and most importantly why. And there is data showing that consumers will not buy products they can’t smell. (I really don’t want to think about the poor soul reviewing hours and hours of pharmacy aisle hidden-camera footage as folks poke and sniff their way through the hair care section.)

The job I do want, however, belongs to one Rose Casanova-Gugliotta, who is a fragrance developer for a firm called Firmenich. The company is headquartered out of Geneva, but has an American outpost in New Jersey, where Casanova-Gugliotta toils happily.

The fragrance development industry is shrouded in secrecy and papered in proprietorial non-disclosure agreements. So I was delighted to get to speak with Casanova-Gugliotta, who spent about three years on the scent for a new Unilever shampoo called Clear. This one focuses on scalp health; Heidi Klum is the spokesmodel for the TV commercials.

Fragrance is Casanova-Gugliotta’s passion, “the place,” she says, “where art meets science.” Indeed, the challenge for Clear was to convey to the shampoo aisle-smellers that the product is “modern, efficacious, good for you and luxurious.”

To that end, the top note, she says, is a crisp green apple. “Apples are often used in American fragrancing for hair care, so that note is familiar. But usually the apples are sweeter. Green signals efficacy, wellness, health.”

The mid-note “is a transparent floralcy. That means orchids and freesias, signalling a luxurious product.” And the background, “for beauty positioning, we added some creamy, white woods, and an enveloping cashmere feel.”

The science sell here is about scalp health. Now, I was immediately keen on the idea of a scalp-focused product, because I have read all the Anna Wintour bios, and the Vogue editrix is reputedly obsessed with the health of her scalp.

Did I find a notable difference in my hair using Clear ($5.68 to $8.49)? Nope, this is not one of my far-too-frequent flat-out raves. It is a good, solid shampoo, but I did not have apple-smacking-noggin moment, beyond an enduring fascination with the people who turn words and ideas into scent messaging.

Might be Heidi Klum overdose, as there isn’t really a pet rock she won’t be a sponsor for these days. And it could be the other disconnect: remember the phase a couple of years ago when everything from colas to dishwashing liquid was clear? Well, we keep looking at the Clear bottle, which is purple, and the Clear shampoo and conditioner, which is an opaque lavender-y tint, and not quite making the leap.

I’m quite sure they did as much mall-intercept, focus-grouping on the name as they did on the fragrance. And who am I to question the wisdom of the aisle crowds?

At mass retailers and select drugstores and supermarkets across Canada.

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